THE FISHEKIES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY AND ITS TREBUTAEIES. 



637 



market in a fresh condition, the greater portion being packed with ice in boxes, each containing 

 about 225 ponnds of fish. From Edouton and other landings the fish are transported by steam- 

 boat up the Chowan and BlackwaterEivers to the intersection of the Seaboard and Eoanoke Bail- 

 road, or by the Dismal Swamp Canal, or yet again by the Chesapeake and Albemaile Canal to 

 Norfolk. The fish are usually consigned directly from the shore to their point of destination. 

 Agents are employed by the owners of the shores to attend to the packing and handling of the fish 

 at Norfolk. Early in the season considerable numbers of herring also are shipped fresh, mainly 

 to Philadelphia and Baltimore. The great bttlk^ however, is either sold fresh on the shore to the 

 farmers, who carry them to the interior in carts and wagons, or is salted down in barrels and 

 shipped, usually in sailing vessels, to Norfolk. The salt fish are prepared for market in three 

 ways, being known, respectively, as "gross herring," the entire fish being salted down, as "split 

 herring," the head andentrals being removed before salting, or as "roe herring," the head alone 

 being removed, the main gut drawn, and the roe left in the fish. The manipulations connected 

 with this preparation do not differ from those in common use all along the coast. 



STATISTICS OF THE FISHERIES OF ALBEMARLE SOUND. 



The following statistics show the extent and value of the fisheries of Albemarle Sound and 

 its tributaries for the season of 1880: 



* Fishermen and shoresmen. 



3. THE FISHERIES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY AND ITS TRIBU- 

 TARIES. 



BY MARSHALL MCDONALD. 



1. GENERAL EEVIEW. 



The Chesapeake is a great highway for the commerce of the world. In contemplating its 

 possibilities in this direction we are apt to lose sight of the fact that it is itself an area of vast 

 and profitable production. 



The fresh waters brought down by its grand system of tributary rivers, commingling with 

 the salt waters of the bay, produce those peculiar conditions of salinity which are most favorable 

 to the growth of the oyster. Consequently we find the shores of the bay itself, the mouths of all 

 its rivers, and the bottoms of the tributary sounds such as the Pocomoke and Tangier thickly 

 occupied by natural beds of oysters, the dredging of which furnishes profitable occupation for vast 



